Writers Guild Strike Averted After Late Agreement

Minutes after the Writers Guild of America's deadline, a deal has been made to avoid an industry-wide writers' walkout today.

Variety reports that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a "tentative agreement" with the WGA just after the midnight cut-off.

The agreement will increase minimums for writers, improve contributions to health plans, better define the maximum amount of work allowed for an episode fee on short TV seasons, ensure job protection during parental leave, and increase residuals.

Exit Theatre Mode

“Did we get everything we wanted? No." reads a WGA memo, "Everything we deserve? Certainly not. But because we had the near-unanimous backing of you and your fellow writers, we were able to achieve a deal that will net this Guild’s members $130 million more, over the life of the contract, than the pattern we were expected to accept."

A mass writers' walkout would have been the biggest since the 2007-08 strike, and would have created production problems across the TV and movie industry. 96.3% of voting guild members had approved a strike if a favorable deal was not made - both sides had been negotiating for the last week before today's deal.